Three Geisel radiologists win awards

Geisel School of Medicine faculty members Jocelyn Chertoff, Petra Lewis and Nancy McNulty Med’95 will be honored at the 65th annual meeting of the Association of University Radiologists in early May for collectively receiving four awards that recognize their contributions to the field of radiology. The three recipients are also radiologists at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center; Chertoff serves as the chair of the radiology department.

“As the chair, it’s really a great moment for one department to get four of these awards in the same year,” Chertoff said. “I felt really proud of my department for having been able to achieve that.”

Both Chertoff and Lewis will receive an Achievement Award from an AUR affiliate, the Association of Program Directors in Radiology. According to APDR’s website, this honor recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of education in radiology and/or for outstanding service to the organization.

Chertoff will also receive the Gold Medal, the organization’s highest honor, which, according to AUR’s website, recognizes unusually distinguished service or contributions to the AUR, academic radiology or the field of radiology in general. Chertoff is a former president of AUR and has been a faculty member at Geisel for 25 years.

Chertoff will be recognized for service, while Lewis, who has spent 24 years at Geisel and has been a faculty member since 1998, will be recognized for education. Lewis said the awards are especially significant because of the size of Geisel’s radiology department, which includes around 36 faculty members.

“I was very surprised,” Lewis said. “I had absolutely no idea I was [being considered] for this award. And it was particularly nice this year because my colleagues Dr. Chertoff and Dr. McNulty, received the three other awards.”

McNulty will receive the Excellence in Education Award from the AUR affinity group Alliance of Medical Student Educators in Radiology. According to AUR’s website, the award honors an educator who has made outstanding contributions to medical student radiology education in the United States.

“There’s an incredible group of student educators nationally, so it’s very nice to be recognized among that group,” McNulty said.

McNulty said she has been actively teaching first- and second-year medical students for over 10 years, focusing on radiology education that happens before they interact with patients. She credited Chertoff and Lewis as being terrific mentors and colleagues that were integral in helping her develop her academic career and said that she felt that their awards were very much deserved.

AUR president and radiology professor at the University of Utah Yoshimi Anzai remarked that Chertoff receiving two awards was notable because this will be the first time that anyone will receive both awards at the ceremony. Anzai explained that an awards committee picks its honorees from people who have been nominated to receive an award.